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Recruitment of abundant NK cells to the PFAPA tonsils support the crucial role of innate immunity in pathogenesis of PFAPA syndrome
Pediatric Rheumatology volume 13, Article number: O82 (2015)
Introduction
Periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis, and cervical adenitis (PFAPA) syndrome is a more frequent cause of recurrent fever in children. The exact etiology of this pediatric disorder is still unknown. Palatine tonsils are sites where innate immunity leads to the onset of adaptive immunity, mediated by B and T lymphocytes.
Objective
Our purpose is to understand if infiltrating inflammatory cells in PFAPA tonsils contribute to evolving disease.
Methods
We have collected tonsil samples from 2 groups of pediatric patients undergoing tonsillectomy: PFAPA patients (n=20) and children who had indication of bacterial tonsillitis (control group, CG) (n=20). We have performed a precise phenotypic analysis of subpopulations on tonsil cells and tissues using flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry.
Results
During the asymptomatic phase the number of monocytes did not differ between the PFAPA and control tonsils. We observed a considerable recruitment of NK cells in tonsils of PFAPA patients with respect to CG. Surprisingly, we have detected a significant expansion of both CD56brightCD16- and CD56dimCD16+NK cell subsets when compared to CG. Strict characterization of activating and inhibitory NK receptors revealed a crucial role of CD56dimCD16+. Specially, activating receptors, such as natural cytotoxicity receptors (NCRs) and NKG2D, are higher in NK of PFAPA patients. Furthermore, FACS analysis displayed a higher number of naïve and a significantly lower percentage of effector memory CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in PFAPA patients compared to CG. Additionally, PFAPA patients presented a significant decrease of functional follicular helper T cells (Tfh) and regulatory T cells.
Conclusions
These results confirm a relevant involvement of NK cells in pathogenesis of PFAPA supporting the crucial role of the innate immunity. Nonetheless, the abundant and activated NK cell subsets (particularly CD56dimCD16+) might influence adaptive immune responses demonstrated impaired in the tonsils of PFAPA patients.
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This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
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Chiesa, S., Caorsi, R., Ingrosso, I. et al. Recruitment of abundant NK cells to the PFAPA tonsils support the crucial role of innate immunity in pathogenesis of PFAPA syndrome. Pediatr Rheumatol 13 (Suppl 1), O82 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/1546-0096-13-S1-O82
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1546-0096-13-S1-O82
Keywords
- Tonsillitis
- Palatine Tonsil
- Aphthous Stomatitis
- Follicular Helper
- Natural Cytotoxicity Receptor